


Yellow Dresses and Pink Lollipops

by TheWhiteWitch



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Birthday Party, Churros sorta, Cisco has fun with his cousins, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Laurel is stubborn, Laurels makes bad decisions, Pinchos, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 08:03:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3888640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWhiteWitch/pseuds/TheWhiteWitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurel goes with Cisco to a family party. Not as dramatic as it sounds. </p>
<p>Basically, how I saw Cisco and Laurel's first attempt at getting to know one another from Laurel's point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yellow Dresses and Pink Lollipops

**Author's Note:**

> I heard that Cisco was Perto Rican but, I didn't bother to double-check that information. So if he's not, oops.

Laurel didn't really understand how she ended up in Cisco’s parent’s back yard for his mother’s birthday. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She knew how it happened, but she just didn't know why she was here.

She had come in town to visit her mom for a couple days. On the train ride over she contemplated whether or not she should tell Barry. On one hand she felt it was a basic courtesy to offer her services well in town. On the other, she really wanted to just get away from the vigilante thing for a couple days. As the city lights rose over the horizon, moral decency over-powered her personal vacation needs. It looked like she would be taking a side trip to Star Labs.

She walked through the door, surprising Berry, Caitlin, and Cisco, who were all huddled around a computer terminal. She sputtered out some version of, “I’m here to help if you need it and I’ll try not to step on your shoes.” They smiled and nodded, gave her free reign of their resources, trying desperately not to step on her shoes either. It was a bizarre dance, where no one knew the steps other then don’t piss off the other vigilantes. It felt like they took the first step in forging a vigilante code of conduct to be used by future generations. At least it felt that way for her. She was sure it wasn’t like that for Felicity, Oliver, or even Ray, who were friends with the group. They probably spent most of their time together, having parties, hanging out, or going out on awkward double dates. Well, that last one probably didn’t happen. 

Laurel missed that. The feeling of just not caring, relaxing into a sofa to watch a movie with a six pack and pizza, slamming back shots at a club until her stress floated away or sitting outside on a beautiful day watching children play on a bouncy castle as the sweet promise of barbecue clings to the air. She smiled and adjusted her legs into a more comfortable position under the picnic table. Maybe that’s why she was here. To feel carefree one last time.

Laurel thought back to earlier that day when she headed to Star Labs to let them know she going to stay an extra day. She walked in through the doors to see Barry on the far left using a computer while Cisco and Caitlin where further into the room. Caitlin seemed to be writing on a clipboard and Cisco was pacing around the center of the room. He was in the middle of begging for something from Caitlin. 

“Oh come on, plans are flexible. Just rain check them. I can’t go by myself and I can’t not go to my mom’s birthday.” His eyes were wide with fear. “She’ll murder me.” 

Curious and not wanting to interrupt the conversation Laurel decided to stay in the back of the room until it was over.

“Well then, sounds like you will have to, what’s the phrase? Suck it up.” Replied Caitlin.

“Why? Just push your plans back an hour. I just have to make an appearance at the picnic, eat some food and mingle for a bit.”

Frustrated Caitlin grabbed one of Cisco’s shoulders to stop his movement. “Cisco listen to me. Are you paying attention?” She let go and snapped her fingers in front of his face. Then like she was explaining basic math to a small child, she finished with, “I can’t go because I was planning on having a very romantic date, at a very expensive restaurant, that I have a very specific time sensitive reservation for. Okay?”

Cisco nodded, stuffed one of his hands into his jacket’s pocket, pulled out a lollipop, unwrapped it, stuffed the wrapper back into his pocket, and popped the candy into his mouth. 

He spun around to point at Barry. “What about you?”

Laurel had to stifle a chuckle. She wondered in lollipops where Cisco’s version of a security blanket.

“Police meeting,” Barry replied not looking up from the computer.

“Damn you and your job.” Cisco walks over to a trash can and pulls a hand full of wrappers out of his jacket. He lets them fall through his fingers into the can. “Well, you guys know anyone else who has the rest of today free? I’m desperate, I’ll take anybody.”

Laurel doesn’t know what compels her to do so, but the words spill over her lips before she even realizes that her mouth is forming them. “Anybody? What about me?”

Barry’s head snapped up, he smiled at her and waved. Caitlin turned around, her forehead scrunched in confusion. Cisco’s face was priceless. First shock, which was probably because he didn’t know she was there, then joy at seeing her in the room, which was soon destroyed by absolute horror.

“Uh, Sure?” He mumbled around the pink colored sugar. Laurel raised an eyebrow. “I mean,” he continued, “you probably don’t want to. It’s just a bunch of old people and kids. It will be real boring.”

Laurel put a mock hand to her chest as if she were offended. “I thought you said anybody. Am I not good enough?”

“What? No, you’re great, you’re amazing, you’re-” Cisco snapped his mouth closed for a change before he said anything else. Laurel smiled and wondered how the hell he was going to back out of this one. He stammered out, “You know, in an average and general way.” 

Caitlin smacked a clipboard into her face. “Excuse me, I have a date to get ready for.” She said before she practically ran from the room.

Laurel and Barry called goodbye after her. Then Laurel turned back to Cisco who looked very concerned. “Please don’t kick my ass.” 

Laurel laughed. “It’s fine. I’m not upset. But seriously, I came in to tell you guys that I’m going to stay for an extra day. So if you do need someone to go with you, I can do it.” 

He twirled the lollipop stick between his fingers, then popped it out of his mouth and pointed it at her. “Promise that you won’t think less of me?”

Berry stood up from the computer and stretched his back. “After that last mortifying conversation, I doubt it’s possible for her to think any less of you.” He checked his watch.

“You weren’t there when we first met it was twice as mortifying, besides nobody-” There was a bright flash followed by a surge of wind and Barry was gone, “asked you.” Cisco finished to an empty computer desk.

Seeming to give up on it all, Cisco sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “It starts at eleven, the sooner we go, the sooner we can leave.”

And that was basically it. Looking back on it now, she felt like it was like a shitty sitcom episode. Sighing, she watched people mulled around. They all dressed in a wide offering of clothing from casual to formal. Laurel looked down at her soft yellow dress. She asked Cisco if it was appropriate. He just giggled, saying something about canaries hiding in plain sight. She had rolled her eyes at his comment. The dress turned out to be perfect style for the event.

It was a pretty nice affair. The back yard was large enough to fit several canopies and half a dozen rented picnic tables. All of which were covered with white plastic table coverings. The canopies were strewn with ribbons, banners, and balloons, ranging in color from white, pink, peach, and violet. Not the best color pallet, but it had a strange spring-like charm to it. 

The wind whipped up for a moment and the table covering shifted, threatening to drift away. She reached out, fingers caressing the wispy material, to keep it in place. She half expected it to be Barry, coming because he needed help dealing with a super powered crazy person. She exiled a soft breath when it was merely the weather. There was one more gust of wind, slightly stronger then the last. Cisco’s mother screeched as paper plates and napkins went scuttling across the ground.

Cisco, who had been in the middle of talking with his parents, chased after them along with other family members. There seemed to be some bad blood between Cisco and his parents. When he had introduced her to them, he was ready to vibrate out of his skin. They were nice upon meeting her, his mother welcomed her with a hug and his father looked to be genuinely impressed by her job title. But there was something off, something wrong, like the strings being pulled too tight. 

They exchanged pleasantries and pretended interests in each other’s work, all normal boring conversation skills. However, every once and a while, Cisco parent’s would give him a look. It was tired and disappointed, and Laurel just couldn’t wrap her head around it. The worst part is that Cisco would see it too, but he didn’t react to it, like it was a common event it his life. She felt angry on his behalf, even though he acted like he didn’t care. She would never say anything to them of course, it was none of her business, a family matter. For all she knew, Cisco could have deserved it, although she couldn’t even imagine scenario where he did.

Soon, Laurel ran out things out of meaningless things to discus and feigned a heat headache in order escape. She found an empty table far from the crowds and made herself at home.  
A child giggled as she ran past her table, then screamed Cisco’s name. Reaching frightening speed she flung herself against Cisco’s legs. He lost his footing for a few solid seconds and had to grab onto a nearby table to regain it. The child pointed a finger gun at him and made, Laurel assumed for she was too far away to know for sure, gunshot noises. Cisco for his part put on the most elaborate death scene imaginable. 

“Oh, you got me!” he cried in English. He clutched at his chest and sunk to his knees. “It hurts, ah! The pain!” he continued to make exaggerated faces and clutching at an invisible bullet wound until his head hit the dirt. Then his eyes closed and he became still. 

The girl cried, “The great galactic bounty hunter, Sophia, finally has her prize!” She placed a foot on Cisco’s chest and struck a pose. 

After a moment of basking in glory, Sophia moved to squat by Cisco’s head. She said something low and quick, probably in Spanish. Cisco’s eyes popped open. He smiled and reached into his jacket for a lollipop. Cisco pushed a finger to mouth in an obvious gesture for silence. The Sophia nodded, snatched it up, and then ran off towards the bouncy castle. 

Laurel felt something light in her chest. It moved across her body through her veins, tingling and warming every inch of her in seconds. It was a strangely familiar feeling, yet it had become so foreign that she nearly forgot what it was. She shivered after it assaulted her and evaporated. The whole display with Sophia had been utterly cute and adorable, making her realize one important detail. She liked Cisco.

Sitting at the table, wind cooling her skin, tiny blades tickling her feet through the gaps in her sandals, she felt the word freeze and dissolve into nothing. Realizing that she really liked someone she defiantly didn’t deserve was like being transported into another dimension. She knew that Cisco liked her. Anyone with eyes could see that. But this wasn’t some tini-bopper high school romance. Where the words like and love where thrown around like fake chicken nuggets in a food fight. Liking someone was the alpha and omega back then. It was all that was needed to start a legendary romance. But now, in the real world, the sad truth is that it meant very little. Especially in Laurels reality, filled death and constant threat to her life. Images of relationships flew threw her head. Her mom and dad, her and Oliver, her and Tommy, Nyssa and Sara, Roy and Thea, Oliver and Felicity. She swallowed as her throat dried. Her eyes locked onto Cisco’s back. No, she didn’t want their ends, not again, anything but that for Cisco. So Laurel would do what was shockingly the least painful, nothing. 

As if sensing her gaze, Cisco spun around and smiled at her. Each of his hands held a plate of some form of barbequed meat on a stick. He pushed the plates into the air and cocked an eyebrow as if to say, “Looks good, eh?” 

She laughed and gave an exaggerated nod so he could see it. He smiled wide and he started to walk over in her direction. About ten feet away, he was stopped by a man wearing suit pants and a crisp white shirt. The man punched Cisco in the chest lightly. Cisco said something to him in Spanish and the man laughed. He swung his arm around Cisco’s shoulder and started to talk. Curious, Laurel tried to listen in. 

Her high school Spanish was very rusty, but she could vaguely understand that the man was asking how Cisco was doing. They exchanged pleasantries, which was basically all of the words that Laurel remembered. The man seemed to have changed the subject because he released Cisco and hit his shoulder as if he was saying, “I’m super impressed man.” Whatever he was talking about embarrassed Cisco. 

Cisco shook his head violently and said, “No.” Then he rattled off more words Laurel couldn’t comprehend. The man shrugged, and said something else. Cisco shot him a glare as he answered back. The conversation must have been over because Cisco was pulling away. The man smiled and called something at Cisco as he was leaving. Cisco sighed as he reached the table.

“What was that about?” Laurel asked, still very curious.

Cisco rolled his eyes, “Nothing. He was just being stupid. Pinchos?” He offered her one of the plates.

“I never turn down barbeque, no matter what it’s called.”

He chuckled, “I hope you like chicken.”

She looked at the plate in front of her. It had four skewers covered in meat, with a piece of toasted bread stuck on one side. It smelled great. Laurel picked up one of the sticks and began to eat, giving little thought to the barbeque sauce sticking to her hands. Cisco started by eating the bread first.

“So, that was your brother?” 

Cisco cocked is head to the side and his squinted with amused confusion. “Yep, how did you know?”

“You guy where a little too tactile for cousins. That and he knew exactly how to push your buttons.”

“Yeah, sometimes I just wanna push him off a cliff.” He glared in his brother’s direction, then his head whipped around to stare at her. “Oh God, Laurel, sorry.”

Wait, what was he- Oh, Sara. Her stomach sunk slowly and the back of her throat began to ache. Guilt crawled over her skin. For a time, after Sara died, every mention of death would bring Laurel’s mind back to seeing Sara lying on that metal table. Every murder case she worked, every side comment, every joke and tore Laurel up inside. But now, it was worse. Now when someone joked about killing their boss, she thought it was funny or rude or sad. Sara’s death kept getting pushed further and further down her chain of thought until it almost never came up. It was like Sara’s death was losing importance to Laurel. She couldn’t make her mind stop it. She knew it was natural and healthy, but it also felt wrong. It felt like she was forgetting Sara.

But here was Cisco, terrified that he had traumatized her. She was, but more over her own thoughts then his joking dislike of his brother. “Its fine, Cisco. It’s okay.” She smiled at him to show him that she meant it. “I miss this. Being amongst family and friends. You’re lucky, you know. You should treasure this, while you can. Their so,” she searched for the appropriate word. “Normal.”

Cisco snorts in laughter. “Yeah normal. You just think that because you can’t understand what their saying.”

“I don’t need to, compared to my family, yours is average.” Cisco rolled his eyes. Laurel became agitated. It was bad enough that Laurel was denied happiness, but she wasn’t about to let Cisco overlook his own because he was to blind to it. She needed Cisco to understand how lucky he was, how much he still had left. How much he could lose playing their dangerous vigilante game.

“My dad basically disowned me because he blames my sister’s death on me.” That was a gross exaggeration meant to shock Cisco into paying attention. But Laurel realized, sometimes when she was alone with just her thoughts, they railed that against her mind, crying over and over again that it was her fault, even her father knew it. “And then he tried to arrest me and my friends.” His mouth fell open. “My sister was assumed dead for five years. I grieved for her for so long. My best friend was gone and she took the best of me with her. And then she came back. She came back!” Laurel went silent for a moment trying to get the words right. “But now she’s gone for real. I saw her body, her blood, and the holes in her chest. I put her in the ground myself. And it was so much worse the second time. To have hope and-”

Her voice cracked slightly, she cleared her throat, determined to keep it steady. She could stop now, Cisco didn’t need to hear anymore, she could see it on his face, but she couldn’t make herself spare him. “Oliver sacrificed himself to save his sisters life. Felicity is forced to watch as the man loves try to kill the rest of our family. Oliver is gone. Roy is gone. Nyssa is gone. Then there’s Tommy. He was the best of us. He was- He was special. He made me- better.” 

She sucked in a breath and Cisco reached across the table and took her hand. Barbeque sauce transferred from her fingers to his dark skin. He didn’t seem to notice. She continued on, “Tommy is dead. But you, you have a brother, a mother, a father, aunts and uncles, baby cousins, Catlin, Barry, Joe. You’re so lucky.”

“Laurel.” His voice was soft and his eyes where full of concern. “You’re crying.” Laurel lifted her empty hand to touch the top of her cheek. She felt water slide over her skin. 

“Oh.” It was the only response she could muster. She attempted to wipe the tears away, but ended up just spreading the barbeque sauce that was on her hand to her face. She couldn’t make herself care. Cisco muttered something angrily to himself in Spanish. 

When he spoke to her again, his voice was calm and comforting. “I’m gonna get you some napkins, ok?” 

He squeezed her hand once and then let go. Laurel suddenly felt incredibly alone. Her mind was numb and her heart was squeezed tight, but yet she felt lighter than air, like she was about to float off the wood she was sitting on. All she could do was nod and watch as he got up. He walked over to a table covered with paper plates and plastic utensils. Finding some napkins, he walked over to his parents table. They exchanged words and his mother and father got up to give him a hug. 

Oh, he was telling them that he was leaving. Her body had calmed down enough for a sliver guilt to slip in. Stubborn Laurel had ruined everything again. She placed her head in her hands. She just had to prove Cisco’s family was better than hers. She should have just let it go when he rolled his eyes. 

After a few moments of self-reprimand, she heard Cisco clear his voice. “Here you go, a nice stack of pink napkins. I also told my parent’s that we might be leaving, so if you wanna go we can.”

She didn’t bother to raise her head, she wasn’t ready to look at him. “Do you want to go?”

“I want to do whatever makes you happy.” It was such a genuine response that her head snapped up to see for herself. He was smiling wide enough that his dimples and teeth were visible. He was holding the pink napkins out to her in his left hand, while there was two white paper bags in his right. 

“I think, I’m ready to go.” She replied honestly. Spilling her guts earlier and had made her dead tired. She took the napkins from him and started to clean herself off. He nodded, placing the two bags down, he started to clear off the table. 

“Good, cause my mom started talking about trying to set me up with girls from her church.” He shuddered, while he was picking up their plates. “I hate blind dates, just slightly worse than no dates at all.”

She laughed and poured water from her plastic bottle onto her hands. “Any girl would be ecstatic to have you, Cisco.” 

She realized, numbly, as she scrubbed pink paper over her skin, that she was included in that list. She ignored the revelation in favor gathering up the used napkins and tossing them into a trash can about eight feet away. Her hand and eye coordination had improved tenfold after she started fighting crime.

Cisco looked embarrassed. “I highly doubt that. In fact there’s a whole list of girls from high school who would disagree with you.”

“Well, they obviously didn’t attempt spend any time with you, or they would have changed their minds.” Holy shit, she needed to change the subject quick before his genius brain decided dissect that sentence. “What’s in the bags?” She nodded to the ones he had brought back with the napkins.

His smile was infectious. “My mom’s favorite churros for the road, you’re gonna love them.”

Her eyes locked with his. “I’m sure I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, thanks for reading! 
> 
> This fic is dedicated to my best friend and sister-from-another-mister, Lourdes. She unwittingly helped me write this through inviting me into her family and her insistent love of Pinchos and Churros.


End file.
